PHOENIX — Candace Parker looked up to Chamique Holdsclaw and the 1996 U.S. Olympic women’s basketball team growing up.
Now she and Elena Delle Donne will get to be enshrined with them in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame later this year.
“I am so happy for Chamique, and I am so happy that she is getting her flowers. She deserves them,” Parker told The Associated Press. “Obviously, Elena Della Donne and I grew up battling against one another and the ’96 team, I think we were all inspired by that. So I just think it’s, it’s truly special.”
Parker was honored to be part of the 2026 Hall of Fame class that also includes Amar’e Stoudemire, Mike D’Antoni, Joey Crawford, Doc Rivers and Mark Few.
“It means so much, just to be in a club of people that I’ve always admired and looked up to and have paved the way. I think it’s super special,” Parker said.
Parker won three titles in the WNBA with three teams: Los Angeles, Chicago and Las Vegas. She is the only player in league history to win both the MVP and Rookie of the Year in the same season.
She also won two titles while playing in college for Tennessee under Hall of Fame coach Pat Summitt, two Olympic gold medals and two WNBA MVP awards.
Holdsclaw said she had pictures on her wall growing up in New York of members of the 1996 Olympic team that started the run of eight straight gold medals for women’s basketball and helped get the WNBA started.
“There’s four or five players on that team who I have pictures of at my home, Lisa Leslie, Dawn Staley, Teresa Edwards,” Holdsclaw said.
Holdsclaw won three straight titles at Tennessee from 1996 to 1998, part of the first team to accomplish that. The 1998 championship was Tennessee’s first undefeated season at 39-0, and the Vols also set an NCAA record for the most wins in a season at that time. Parker helped Summitt win her last two titles in 2007-08.
“She would be so proud right now,” Holdsclaw said of her former coach. “I know she loved us both.”
Holdsclaw went on to an 11-year WNBA career. The WNBA and the defunct ABL were really made possible by the 1996 team. The Americans went undefeated at the Atlanta Games, and the interest the team generated with its barnstorming tour across the U.S. leading up to the Olympics captured the attention of fans across the country.
“The ’96 Olympic team was a really incredible group of women that were on a mission and accomplished the mission,” coach Tara VanDerveer said. “It helped establish the ABL and the WNBA, and I think it really was the rocket that was the foundation for the women’s basketball landscape now. I think it’s very exciting for all the players on the team and the coaches.”
Delle Donne won two WNBA MVP awards in 2015 and 2019, the second of which came when she led the Washington Mystics to their lone championship. Delle Donne became the first player in league history to shoot over 50% from the field, 40% from behind the 3-point line and 90% from the free throw line.
Stoudemire, who was the only NBA player in this year’s class, was the Rookie of the Year in 2003 and a six-time All-Star. He spent the first eight years of his career with the Phoenix Suns, where he teamed with D’Antoni.
“It means everything from a basketball point of view,” Stoudemire told the AP. “When you look back at my career, not only as a pro but even high school and, and nationally, and since I was a kid playing the game of basketball. I love the game. You play the game because you love it, and then you work to become the best you can possibly be, despite circumstances, and to get into the Hall of Fame, it shows that the voters appreciate it. And now we’re enshrined forever.”
Rivers has 1,192 victories on his résumé, which puts him sixth on the career wins list. He led the Boston Celtics to the NBA championship in 2008 and was in charge of the LA Clippers during their Lob City era.
Few has won 773 games at Gonzaga. He set the NCAA Division I men’s coaching record by winning 81 games in his first three years at the school. Few guided the Bulldogs to the national championship game in 2017 and 2021.
Crawford officiated 2,561 regular-season NBA games and 50 Finals games over his 39-year career. He retired in 2016.
D’Antoni influenced the sport with his up-tempo philosophy that redefined offensive strategy. He had nearly 1,200 career wins and was NBA Coach of the Year twice.
For the first time, the Hall of Fame honored the incoming class at the women’s Final Four on Friday night. Parker, Holdsclaw and members of the 1996 Olympic team were all in attendance as well as Stoudemire and D’Antoni.
The enshrinement ceremony will take place in August at the Hall of Fame in Springfield, Massachusetts.
